Genesis 9
9
God's promise to Noah
1God said to Noah and his sons:#Gn 1.28.
I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth. 2All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, 3and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. 4But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it.#Lv 7.26,27; 17.10-14; 19.26; Dt 12.16,23; 15.23. 5-6I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.#Ex 20.13; Gn 1.26.
7I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.#Gn 1.28.
8Again, God said to Noah and his sons:
9I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.
12-13The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise for ever. 14When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, 15I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let flood waters destroy all life. 16When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. 17The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.
Noah and his family
18Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, came out of the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. 19All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.
20Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. 21One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. 22Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. 23Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.
24When Noah woke up and learnt what his youngest son Ham had done, 25he said,
“I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
of his brothers.
26I ask the LORD my God
to bless Shem
and make Canaan his slave.
27I pray that the LORD
will give Japheth
more and more#9.27 more and more: In Hebrew “Japheth” sounds like “more and more”. land
and let him take over
the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.”
28Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood 29and died at the age of nine hundred and fifty.
© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Genesis 9
9
God Blesses Noah and His Sons
1God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, increase in number, and fill the earth. 2All the wild animals and all the birds will fear you and be terrified of you. Every creature that crawls on the ground and all the fish in the sea have been put under your control. 3Everything that lives and moves will be your food. I gave you green plants as food; I now give you everything else.
4“But you are not to eat meat with blood in it. (Blood is life.) 5In addition, I will demand your blood for your life. I will demand it from any animal or from any person. I will demand the life of any person ⌞who kills⌟ another person.
6Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans his blood will be shed,
because in the image of God, God made humans.
7Be fertile, and increase in number. Spread over the earth, and increase.”
God’s Promise—the Sign of the Rainbow
8God also said to Noah and his sons, 9“I am going to make my promise #9:9 Or “covenant.” to you, your descendants, 10and every living being that is with you—birds, domestic animals, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ship—every living thing on earth. 11I am making my promise to you. Never again will all life be killed by floodwaters. Never again will there be a flood that destroys the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the promise I am giving to you and every living being that is with you for generations to come. 13I will put my rainbow in the clouds to be a sign of my promise to the earth. 14Whenever I form clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in the clouds. 15Then I will remember my promise to you and every living animal. Never again will water become a flood to destroy all life. 16Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember my everlasting promise to every living animal on earth.”
17So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the promise I am making to all life on earth.”
Noah Curses Canaan but Blesses Shem and Japheth
18Noah’s sons, who came out of the ship, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 19These were Noah’s three sons. From them the whole earth was populated. Ham was the father of Canaan.#9:19 The second part of verse 18 (in Hebrew) has been placed just after verse 19 to express the complex Hebrew sentence structure more clearly in English.
20Noah, a farmer, was the first person to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some wine, got drunk, and lay naked inside his tent. 22Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father naked. So he went outside and told his two brothers.
23Shem and Japheth took a blanket and laid it over their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s naked body. They turned their faces away so that they didn’t see their father naked.
24When Noah sobered up, he found out what his youngest son had done to him. 25So he said,
“Canaan is cursed!
He will be the lowest slave to his brothers.
26Praise the Lord, the God of Shem!
Canaan will be his slave.
27May God expand the territory of Japheth.#9:27 There is a play on words here between the Hebrew yapht (May God expand) and yepheth (Japheth).
May he live in the tents of Shem.
Canaan will be his slave.”
28Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29Noah lived a total of 950 years; then he died.
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